AirPods Pro 3 have less overall battery life than AirPods Pro 2

The new AirPods Pro 3 have better battery life than AirPods Pro 2 on a single charge, with the buds lasting up to 2 hours longer on one charge.

But here’s a curveball. The overall battery life of AirPods Pro 3 is actually less. Including the charging case, Apple says AirPods Pro 3 are good for 24 hours of listening time, whereas AirPods Pro 2 actually last for 30 hours. That’s a surprising 25% reduction …

This means for one continuous session of music and podcast listening, AirPods Pro 3 are superior. But if you are away from a charger, the AirPods Pro 3 case will deplete faster.

For some reason, it seems Apple equipped the AirPods Pro 3 case with a smaller capacity battery. Looking at the dimensions of the case on the AirPods tech specs page, the size of the case is about the same (it’s actually a couple millimetres bigger) compared to the AirPods Pro 2 case, but the weight went from 50.8 grams to 44 grams.

This suggests the internal battery capacity of the AirPods Pro 3 case is significantly smaller. Another possible explanation is that the AirPods Pro 3 case features a U2 chip, rather than a U1 chip, for Find My. Perhaps the U2 chip is more power-hungry, or is physically larger and Apple had to fit a smaller battery to make room for it.

Whatever the reason, based on Apple’s quoted numbers, you should expect to need to recharge your new AirPods Pro case more frequently. Whereas the AirPods Pro 2 case could recharge your AirPods earbuds up to four times over, the AirPods Pro 3 case might only manage two full recharges before it depletes.

This equates to 24 hours total listening time, down from 30 hours.

If you look at the battery life of a single session, though, the longevity of AirPods Pro 3 earbuds easily win out. You get up to an additional two hours of continuous listening time, with active noise cancellation active.

If you are using the new heart rate sensor, you still get about half an hour longer battery life than what was possible with AirPods Pro 2. And if you are using the Hearing Aid Transparency mode capabilities, you can expect battery life of up to 10 hours with AirPods Pro 3.